Allan Johnson Power, Privilege, and Difference Blog 1

     After reading Privilege,Power and Difference by Alan Johnson I realized the impact he was trying to portray to the reader. Alan Johnson gave a presentation on privilege and difference between races and the oppression that people face. He brings attention to inequality and how people struggle talking about or feel uncomfortable talking about it. Why do we feel uncomfortable talking about racism? According to Dr Alan Johnson’s presentation he believes silence is perpetuating racism because it’s racist to think of any other race as an uncomfortable topic. Alan emphasized that it is systematic but not to individuals and becoming uncomfortable or defensive to these topics was embedded in social normals. Why is it that we as humans in this systematic society find it hard to break the cycle of racism? 

    As Alan Johnson stated, “I’m a human being, not a part of the white people”(Johnson), this statement was meant to make a lasting impact on the audience and have them realize the way we talk about communities we are associated as a white person. If you were a person of color, would you like to be known as ‘the black person’? Probably not, that’s because we put the idea in our heads that it’s okay to classify someone by their skin color. The acronym ‘SCWAAMP’ stands for straightness, Christianity, whiteness, Americanness, able-bodieness, maleness, and property ownership.While reading through the article about SCWAAMP I realized a theme of ideology, “The Christian, white, straight, male, able-bodied, property owner, and American”. My ideology is different than what this article talked about and this ideology was imperfect. When I become an educator in the near future, I want my students to feel safe and welcomed in the classroom, I do not want them to have their eyes opened to an ideology where they think they are not good enough for everyone around them. 

    While listening to the presentation by Dr. Alan Johnson I quickly made the assumption that he might not know what he’s talking about, and I realized I can be part of the issue with early judgments. Although, I am pretty good at avoiding the typically ideology standards I do think Alan Johnson made a good point in white identification and how we are part of a dominant group of people. To break the white identification cycle is to really show improvement and not be quick with judgments. To wrap up this blog, Alan Johnson wrote a great book overlooking privilege and power of one certain group and with his words of empowerment to break the cycle I believe we as humans can change the standard ideology, and overlook one’s race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and religious stand points.